“Eight days and an hour,” my oldest told me this morning, before I even took a sip of coffee.

“What?”

“Eight days and an hour,” he repeated. “You know…til summer vacation?”

Just like that, I realized I’m out of time. No matter how crazy these last couple of weeks of school are, I’ve got to get busy looking for summer activities, especially ones to keep them busy and active. I like the Wii as much as the next person, but I certainly don’t want them to sit around, bickering about what game they are going to play all summer long. I want them to get out there, meet other kids and, you know… move!

Just about the time that I started to panic about the long summer ahead, I came across the Chicago Bears Youth Football Camps with following description:

The Chicago Bears Youth Football Camps are safe, non-contact instruction for kids ages 6-14 and are very suitable for any kid that just wants to learn the game. They provide a station-based training format that allows campers to be divided by age and experience level so each receives the right level of instruction and support. Kids will learn to run, throw, catch, defend, form block, form tackle and explode out of their stance with proper technique and improved speed. The camps, which each run for 5 days from 9am to 3p.m. (that’s 30 hours active learning, instruction and fun!), do more than just introduce kids to sports, they make kids passionate about being healthy and help develop a lifelong love of fitness.

I have to admit I’m intrigued. My youngest child (technically, he is the youngest — he was born 4 minutes after his twin sister) told me this spring that he was interested in playing football. All he knows about football is from watching games on TV and tossing a Nerf in the backyard, so a non-contact introduction to the game, its positions and rules sounds about right for him.

I’d like him to learn a new sport to keep him active throughout the summer. It might be a little sneaky on my part, but my kids are more interested in physical fitness if it just seems like fun stuff to do (and aren’t they all like that?).

Per the website, off-the-field moments during camps include nutritional education games, interactive classroom actives such as “Eat Like a Bear” and lunch hours for the kids and coaches. There is even an interactive online game called “Eat Like a Pro” which is a great tool to start the parent/kid nutrition discussion. I have a feeling C would understand the idea of “food-as-fuel” better from a football coach than from his mother’s harping at him to eat his veggies. Again. 🙂

In addition, if you head over to the Chicago Bears Youth Football Camps Facebook page, you can nominate a “Healthy Hero” that has made an impact on your child’s life. One “Hero” will be selected and featured on the Chicago Bears Youth Football Camps blog.

And, best of all, I got the chance to give away a prize package to one of you! Just leave a comment on this here post sometime before midnight (Chicago time — CDT) on May 31st, and I’ll randomly pick one. The winner will receive a Chicago Bears Youth Football Camps prize package that will include items such as: small leather binder, Bears rally towel, water bottle, Play 60 drawstring bag, D.J. Moore fan face, Bears gloves and football cards.

This will be my son’s (9yrs old) first year going! He is so excited. He wrote me a Mother’s Day book this year. One of the pages he wrote that the best thing I ever gave him was the opportunity to go to this camp. That page and the whole book in general made me cry that day! ❤ it!!